04.26.09

Summary: The “rich uncle” offers as a gift some skills required to buy/use its products

AS THIS WEB site stressed before, Microsoft’s "Elevate America" initiative is a publicity stunt. It is wrongly (or fraudulently) being recast as charity. Microsoft repeatedly calls it that, so the more obedient journalists uncritically pass it as what Microsoft claims it to be. But it’s actually more harmful than helpful; it makes people dependent on an abusive corporation whose products they will not be able to afford. In many ways, “Elevate America” might even be worse than EDGI. Well, EDGI is usually known to the public as “Unlimited Potential”. This was shown before, e.g. in:

With that in mind, let us proceed. The news comes in the form of a press release. Microsoft is bringing to Houston a programme which it typically brags about in developing countries. Is Texas a place in need of “Unlimited Potential” grants? Does Microsoft perceive it as poor? Because that’s what “Unlimited Potential” targets, as a matter of definition.

City of Houston Announces Multi-Million-Dollar Partnership with Microsoft for Digital Literacy and Workforce Preparedness

[...]

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, awarded to the Houston Public Library Foundation for WeCAN Works, includes $4.3 million in software and $200,000 in cash over a two-year period.

There is also an article about it, but it totally misses the key point and instead it parrots Microsoft’s claims.

The Wireless Empowered Community Access Network (WeCAN) provides digital literacy and other job-readiness support services and training to prepare Houstonians for work.

It’s about teaching them Microsoft, it’s neither about working skills nor computing. It is self-serving — for Microsoft to benefit; it’s merely an investment (with ROI) cast as “charity”.

Why does BizJournals.com miss this important point? There are other PR initiatives from Microsoft that BizJournals.com is covering right now in order to improve Microsoft’s image. It is irresponsible when Microsoft’s words are taken for granted without looking deeper at their motives. It’s cowardly, but it’s just so typically coming from the business press.

In Associated Press we find that the Gates Foundation, whose big funds (billions) are investments that go directly to the pharmaceutical cartel [1, 2, 3], also gives money for “training”.

The grants announced this week will focus largely on training librarians to use Internet resources, to make it easier for library patrons to get vital information and educate themselves and their children, officials said.

Will these librarians be taught to use GNU/Linux in order to keep costs low? Experience suggests that it is never the case. █

“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”

“unlimited potential to hurt Linux” that’s what’s to be called because that’s their goal!

Linux growth in the enterprise and the continually uptake of MS “breath & butter” by Open Office of regular users tired for paying for an Office Suite they do NOT really need. The download numbers says everything and the number of Open Office installed on their own XP/Vista/Vista 7 reported to Redmond by the “Genuine Advantage Authentication Tool” have them cornered to do this act of “charity” Oh what good MS is!”

Three days ago I received an email at work where MS is offering “Gratis” Download of Windows developer tools” to use with Sharepoint which I just read the title and reply to my friend that Gratis doesn’t mean FREE that MS only goal is to keep organizations and individuals locked up on their technologies, unable to think otherwise. My fried reported Ed you’re right. There are Free Open Source alternatives to Sharepoint that you can use at minimal cost compared to the proprietary alternative which they’re trying to protect..

As the times goes by Roy, we’ll see more of these supposed acts of charity that are just business for Microsoft, and that is what are to be called Microsoft investments to keep their profits in the near future. You bet they’re feeling the heat!

The criminal enterprise known as Microsoft finds itself embarrassingly exposed in the courtroom, for the IRS belatedly (decades too late) targets the company in an effort to tackle massive tax evasions

A look at some of last week's patent news, with imperative responses that criticise corporate exploitation of patents for protectionism (excluding and/or driving away the competition using legal threats)

Vista 10 to bring new ways for spies (and other crackers) to remotely access people's computers and remotely modify the binary files on them (via Windows Update, which for most people cannot be disabled)